Succession Planting a Container Vegetable Garden
The easiest way to start out with container vegetable gardening is to choose a pot for each plant, make sure the pot is a good fit, and grow each plant in its own isolated splendor. You can control the environment for each container separately, choose fertilizers for each plant, and do the work of planting each at the right time and without having to work around other plants.
However, it makes for much more attractive, full-looking vegetable container gardens if you plant a few different vegetables in a single container, and plan them so that one plant is finishing its life cycle as the next plant is beginning to really take off. This is called succession gardening.
There are three real types of plants when it comes to seasons: spring, summer, and fall vegetables.
Spring vegetables can be planted before the final frosts have stopped, and are cold-weather hardy as seedlings. Generally, they will produce up until the weather starts to get really hot, and then your harvest will dry up.
Generally, these can be planted in your container garden in March or April, though in climates with mild winters, you can start in February. Some good spring plants include salad greens like lettuce, arugula, or spinach, radishes, or pea plants.
Summer vegetables should be planted after all danger or frost has passed. These will thrive in the heat and grow to overwhelm your containers. Many of them will continue to produce well into the fall, but their peak time will be summer. Most of these are easiest to start from seedlings. Don’t clear the entire container to make room for them; just make a space in the middle. As they grow, they will crowd out your spring plants, making their own room.
These should be planted generally in late May or early June, though you can plant them as soon as your spring crop begins to die off. Some good summer vegetables include tomatoes, eggplant, summer squash, peppers, and cucumbers.
Fall vegetables come in two varieties for me. One are the true fall plants, hardy into cold weather, such as kale, Swiss chard, or fennel. These plants will survive past a few hard frosts and continue to produce. The other are the spring plants which could not bear the heat of summer, planted for a second crop in the early fall.
With either type of plant, you want to seed around the end of July, or a little later for fast-growing plants. If you planted something tall in May, like peppers or tomatoes, you should clear space for the fall planting by trimming off the lower leaves of your summer plant. If you chose something bushy, like squash, you can clear space around the outside of your container by trimming off old leaves. When you’re done with your summer plant entirely and the fall crop has started coming in, you can remove the summer plant by trimming it off at the soil line.
Note that you don’t need to limit yourself to just one spring or fall crop! Alternating peas and lettuce in a large container can give you extra visual appeal and a nicely varied harvest. Also remember that you need more room for a succession garden than you would for any crop individually. You want a container at least 18 inches in diameter for most of the succession planting described here.